6 Special Ideas About What Lesbian Sex Is, 1900-1953
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For centuries, human beings have been asking themselves and each other, “What is lesbian sex?”. It’s a popular question because lesbians are fascinating. This line of inquiry was also particularly challenging prior to this website’s publication of the “Is It Sex?” flowchart.
Even more challenging is how it wasn’t ever lesbians who informed the public of what lesbian sex consisted of, it was almost always straight white men. Imagine that! Now we proudly introduce to you some early ideas about lesbian sex, 1900-1953!
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What Makes Lesbian Sex, 1900-1953
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1. College-Bred Cunni-Linguistics
From a medical work, early 1900s (via Odd Girls & Twilight Lovers):
“When young girls are thrown together in a college setting they manifest an increasing affection by the usual tokens. They kiss each other fondly on every occasion. They embrace each other with mutual satisfaction. It is most natural, in the interchange of visits, for them to sleep together. They learn the pleasure of direct contact, and in the course of their fondling they resort to cunni-linguistic practices… after this the normal sex act fails to satisfy [them].”
via liquorinthefront.tumblr.com
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2. Girl-on-Girl Nymphomania
Swiss Psychiatrist August Forel, The Sexual Question: A Scientific, Psychological, Hygienic and Sociological Study, 1906:
“The [sexual] excess of female inverts exceed those of a male. This is their one thought, night and day almost without interrupton.” +
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3. Mutual Masturbation Petticoat Party
Sociologist Alfredo Niceforo, 1900s:
“In summer, in one work-room, some of the girls wear no drawers, and they unbutton their bodices, and work with crossed legs, more or less uncovered. In this position the girls draw near and inspect one another, some boast of their white legs, and then the petticoats are raised altogether for more careful comparison. From midday until 2 pm, durng the hours of greatest heat, when all are in this condition, and the mistress, in her chemsie (and sometimes, with no shame at the workers’ presence, without it), falls asleep on the sofa, all the girls, without one exception, masturbate themselves. The heat seems to sharpen their desires and morbidly arouse all their senses. The voluptuous emotions, restrained through the rest of the day, break out with irresistible force; stimulated by the spectacle of each other’s nakedness, some place their legs together and thus heighten the spasm by the illusion of contact with a man.”
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4. Cuddling and/or Cunnilingus
Psychologist Havelock Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex: Sexual Inversion, 1901:
“[The ‘inverted woman”s passion for the woman she loves] finds expression in sleeping together, kissing, and close embraces, with more or less sexual excitement, the orgasm sometimes ocurring when one lies on the other’s body or else in mutual masturbation; the extreme gratification is cunnilingus, sometimes called sapphism.”
a little extreme gratification in the evening
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5. No Strings Attached
Novelist Diana Frederics, 1930s:
“It was natural enough that the homosexual would approach intimacy more quickly than the normal person. The very lack of any kind of social recognition of their union gave it a kind of informality. Normal love, having to consider property and children, had to assume responsibilities that were of no consequence to the homosexual. “
or keep it illegal, whatever
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6. Straight Girls Wanna Do It Like Gay Girls Do It, However That Is
Alfred Kinsey, Sexual Behavior in The Human Female, 1953:
“Females in their heterosexual relationships are actually more likely to prefer techniques which are closer to those which are commonly utilized in homosexual relationships. They would prefer a considerable amount of generalized emotional stimulation before there is any specific sexual contact. They usually want physical stimulation of the whole body before there is any specific genital contact. They may especially want stimulation of the clitoris and the labia minora, and stimulation which, after it has once begun, is followed through to orgasm…”
“I’ll never tell…”
In conclusion, we have Phyllis Lyon in the intro to Pat Califia’s book Sapphistry, published in 1988:
“Virtually every book on human sexuality still proclaims the un-fact that Lesbians are really not so much interested in sex or orgasm as they are in hugging and kissing a lot. This kind of misinformation is a direct attack on all women’s sexuality… Our sexuality is a basic part of our being. Exploring our sexuality with our partners, or with ourselves, nourishes and nurtures us. It gives us joy, physical release, a feeling of well-being which serves to strengthen us as we go out into the world to fight those other battles so necessary to insure the freedom of us all from the bigotry, hatred and misunderstanding of those who would deny us not only our sexuality but our very right to existence.”
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